BRICS member countries
The ten members of BRICS, the bloc of large emerging economies: the four that started it in 2009, South Africa, which added the S, and the five that joined in 2024 and 2025.
10 countriesAs of September 2026Short notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
The name came first. In 2001 Jim O’Neill, an economist at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, coined “BRIC” for Brazil, Russia, India and China, four big, fast-growing economies he expected to reshape the world economy. The four countries took up the idea themselves, and their leaders held their first summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.
BRICS has no treaty or secretariat. Its members meet every year and have set up the New Development Bank, based in Shanghai, as an alternative to Western-led lenders like the World Bank. After it expanded in 2024 and 2025, its members held nearly half the world’s people, but they differ widely in wealth and politics, and some are rivals.
The original BRICS5
The four founders, and South Africa, which joined in 2010 and made BRIC into BRICS.
BrazilHosted the 2025 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
RussiaHosted the first summit, in Yekaterinburg in 2009.
ChinaBy far the largest economy in the group. The New Development Bank is in Shanghai.
South AfricaInvited in 2010 and at its first summit in 2011. It was far smaller than the other four, but gave the group a member in Africa.
Joined in 2024 and 20255
The expansion agreed at the Johannesburg summit in 2023.
EgyptJoined in January 2024.
EthiopiaJoined in January 2024. The African Union is headquartered in its capital, Addis Ababa.
IranJoined in January 2024.
United Arab EmiratesJoined in January 2024.
IndonesiaJoined in January 2025, the tenth member and the first from Southeast Asia.
Close calls
Saudi Arabia
Invited to join in 2023 along with the countries that joined in 2024, Saudi Arabia has attended meetings but hasn’t confirmed that it is a member, so it isn’t counted here.
Argentina
Argentina was invited in 2023 too, but its new president, Javier Milei, turned the invitation down before it took effect.
Partner countries
Since 2024 BRICS has also had partner countries, a step short of membership, among them Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam. They aren’t members.
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